Rovers suffer late Lowe blow

Jason Lowe's own goal capped another week to forget for Blackburn as they started life in the Championship with a 1-1 draw at Ipswich.

Last Updated: 18/08/12 5:24pm

Rovers' pre-match preparations were thrown into disarray when the club's global adviser Shebby Singh told a fans' forum that manager Steve Kean was three straight defeats from the sack before going on to criticise winger Morten Gamst Pedersen.

Pedersen brushed off Singh's "pensioner" jibe to play a part in Colin Kazim-Richards' opener, drilling in a corner which was eventually headed home by the summer arrival.

But poor defending allowed substitute Jason Scotland time and space in the area in the 83rd minute and when he tried to pick out Michael Chopra, his low cross was inadvertently put past his own goalkeeper by Lowe to snatch Town a point.

Ipswich had the first chance of the game, with Josh Carson flashing a 30-yard effort inches over the bar in the fourth minute.

Nuno Gomes, making his competitive debut for Blackburn, fired wide from the edge of the box, before fellow new-boy Kazim-Richards brought a decent save from goalkeeper Scott Loach with a deflected strike.

One of Town's summer signings, Massimo Luongo, found himself in the book after chopping down the lively Kazim-Richards.

Ipswich were struggling to cope with the forward and he opened the scoring in the 21st minute.

Gamst Pedersen drove a corner to the far post and Scott Dann did well to head the ball back across goal for Kazim-Richards to neatly nod into the top corner.

Paul Jewell's side responded as the half progressed, with Lee Martin's speculative effort from 25 yards bringing a comfortable save from Paul Robinson.

Aaron Cresswell tested Robinson with a well-struck free-kick after Lowe had fouled Carson and Martin brought another good stop from the former England international just before the break from 30 yards.

Kazim-Richards was not too far away with an early second-half effort, his 18-yard drive clearing the bar.

At the other end, Robinson refused to be beaten, pulling off another impressive stop to deny Carson as he let fly from the edge of the box in the 55th minute.

Both sides made a double substitution, with Ipswich bringing on Scotland for Jay Emmanuel-Thomas and Andy Drury for Luongo, while Blackburn tried to close the game out by bringing off Mauro Formica and Gomes for Markus Olsson and David Dunn.

And the changes worked in the home side's favour as they equalised with seven minutes remaining.

A ball over the top found Scotland in space but rather than shoot from six yards he tried to pick out Chopra and his attempted cross was turned into his own net by youngster Lowe.